The Songs of UNSTRUNG ~ a Guest Post by Kendra C. Highley

To make my characters come to life, I have to have a playlist that both matches the main players’ personalities and the overall theme of the book. For my first YA SciFi, I wanted a futuristic sound, but also a tongue-in-cheek feel. Lexa’s situation is pretty extreme, but there’s a jadedness mixed in with her spunk and vulnerability. Plus, there’s some romance going on as well. So, how do you match all that up with music? Here’s the playlist:

1. The soundtrack to Tron: Legacy. That might sound cheesy, but DAFT PUNK(!) wrote and performed the entire score. As a lover of good (and sometimes, bad) electronica, this sound was perfect for UNSTRUNG.

2. The Resistance album by Muse. This album (along with Black Holes and Revelations) will likely play a major part in Lexa’s story. “Madness” from their latest album made the cut as well.

3. “Miss Murder” by AFI

4. “Come with Me Now” by Kongos

5. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” covered by Lorde

6. “Mr. Hurricane” and “Ashtray” by Beast

7. “Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways

8. “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones

9. “Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan

10. “Time Is What You Need” by Benassi Bros.

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Book One: Unstrung Series

Lexa Pate, seventeen-year-old thief extraordinaire, has burned a bridge or two in her life. You don’t make a career out of stealing other people’s property without making enemies.

When a risky job goes from bad to worse, Lexa and her adopted family find themselves on Precipice Corporation’s hit list because they’ve accidentally stolen the wrong thing–plans for a new model of genetically-engineered super humans. Now every bounty hunter, cop on the take, and snitch in the city is after them.

Lexa’s world crumbles around her as she fights to keep her family safe even as someone strolls out of her forgotten past. Quinn claims to know who Lexa really is, but can she trust a stranger she met while robbing his boss?

More importantly, does she really want to know what Quinn has to tell her?

Based on the fairy tale Pinocchio, UNSTRUNG takes you into a near future world where the lines between fake and real are blurred, all that’s pristine isn’t always innocent, and being a criminal isn’t always wrong.

Kendra C. Highley lives in north Texas with her husband and two children. She also serves as staff to four self-important cats. This, according to the cats, is her most crucial job. She believes chocolate is a basic human right, running a 10k is harder than it sounds, and that everyone should learn to drive a stick shift. She loves monsters, vacations, baking and listening to bad electronica. If she’s not writing, she’s reading. If she’s not writing or reading, she’s likely a little cranky.